Grass Roots & Gramkosh (Grain Bank Concept)

8/14/2019 Grass Roots & Gramkosh (Grain Bank Concept)

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Grassroots & Gramkosh

SSVK has been working with the most depressed sections of the rural society for their all

round development and mainstreaming. SSVK has been working to empower the mostdowntrodden and marginalised people, especially women, in one of India's poorest states,

Bihar. SSVK's development work aims to build assets, reduce poverty, increase capacityfor new livelihoods, strengthen local democracy and reduce injustice. SSVK, and its

community network Lok Shakti Sangathan (LSS), work intensively with socially andeconomically depressed rural communities, particularly the Dalits, in Madhubani,

Saharsa, Darbhanga and Supaul districts. Over the years the organization has

geographically extended its coverage around mobilisation of identical target groups onright based issues to 14 other districts of Bihar(India).

SSVKs operational area counts amongst one of the most poverty endemic pockets of North Bihar. Within this operational context it works with the most depressed

communities with a historical legacy of marginalization which is reflected even in

spatial terms as they reside on the periphery of the settlements in a hamlet at somedistance from the village. Embedded structural inequity (class and caste) in a context of

extreme ecological vulnerability (recurrent floods) has been responsible for their extreme

poverty by limiting their access to, and control over, assets, education, health care andother constitutionally ordained entitlements. The communities tend to depend on


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agricultural wages or casual non-farm jobs for income, as a large percentage are landless,

owning, if any, lower quality livestock. Even such opportunities are rendered scarce by

the recurrent floods and the poor evolution of the secondary and tertiary sectors in theregion forcing men to depend on seasonal migration to bigger cities or other states to

secure their livelihood. Even such opportunities fail to meet their existential needs

forcing them to take recourse to moneylenders who charge usurious rates of interest.Dominant social forces coupled with the drudgery entailed in meeting survival needs

hardly allow these communities to organise and to resort to development initiatives

collectively. Fatalism is a predominant characteristic of these communities who lookupon their present state as a fate ordained for them by some superior force which in turn

hinders any conscious building of social capital. Thus class and caste characteristics get

strongly associated with lack of opportunities with scheduled castes being thrice as poor

when compared with upper castes. Lack of education, poor health, inadequate access tosafe drinking water and sanitation and poor hygienic conditions get further perpetuated

by these high levels of poverty.

Given the profile of its target group, a core thrust area of the organisation has been itsinvolvement with grassroots mobilisation, organisation, and facilitating mass activities toenable the most marginalised sections of society [the dalits (the scheduled castes) inparticular] to access their rights and entitlements. In its perception the way to effective

empowerment is one hinging on and oriented towards evolving autonomous communitybased organisations endowed with capabilities required for the actualisation of a spirit of

self-determination and self-reliance. The organisations approach received a major thrust

in the direction of activism through its extensive capacity building at the grassrootsgeared towards creation of a trained and informed pool of social animators, mostly from

its target community. A significant fall out of this intervention has been the evolution of a

strategic network of community based organisations (CBOs), under the banner of Lok

Shakti Sangathan, a frontal organisation with an avowed aim to facilitate issue basedinterventions from time to time and advocate for desired changes in the policy

framework. This network, now intensively spread over 1399 villages of Madhubani,

Saharsa, Supaul and Darbhanga Districts and with a growing presence in 14 otherdistricts (310 villages) of Bihar, has contributed greatly towards enhancing the self-

esteem and self-worth of these families. Strategies deployed for mobilisation involve

intensive animation inputs at the village level, periodic larger meets on entitlementsrelated issues and mass contact programmes through `Padyatras. Protest strategies

involve petitioning, demonstrations, sit ins and legal redressal.

At the core of SSVKs successful mobilisational initiative has been the strategically

conceived Gram Kosh (a fund base at the community level created with contributionsmade by the community members themselves). Working with communities on the brink

of survival with only indebtedness to fall back upon, SSVK realized rather early in its

journey that harnessing and holding together the social capital inhering in thesecommunities was only possible if they could have economic teeth of their own.

Otherwise, the over powering poverty would hurl them back into the insular isolation of

making both ends meet for their respective families. The idea of building their ownreserve of funds through making small savings on a regular basis from whatever little


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they earned was mooted. Awareness drives were carried out to convince the target group

members about the utility of this initiative. Special emphasis was laid on the fact that

such a contributory fund would enable them to have their own reserve of funds,something they could immediately dig into in their moments of crisis without having to

take recourse to the moneylender. As this was their own fund, it was important that they

returned the borrowed amount at a premium so that their fund base could grow.

A small beginning was made from five villages of Lakhnaur Block of Madhubani Districtin the early nineties with the community members from these villages agreeing to make a

regular monthly contribution of Rs 5/-. Members who could not make even this small

contribution were given the option of contributing in kind in the form of grain with therider that sixty percent of the annual contribution had to be in cash and the balance forty

percent in grain. However, in practice these savings did not come on a monthly basis but

as and when they could make this contribution. Care was taken to ensure that whenever amember felt capable to make the contribution, he or she cleared all the contribution due

from him. Community members mutually agreed to levy a monthly interest of 2 % on

the borrowers.

The movement for gram kosh gradually picked up as word spread about the benefits itbrought to the communities practicing it. Early instances of perceived benefits had to do

with the kosh coming in handy for meeting health contingencies and food security needs

and for financing the travel of the migrants. As he movement spread and the fund basedeepened, the usage of the fund also diversified. Groups with a sizeable fund base used it

as a fall back mechanism in the struggles they waged for just wages and for pond and

land related rights.

Over the years it became obligatory for the CBOs wanting to come under the banner ofLok Shakti Sangathan to have a gram kosh of their own. Currently gram kosh is an

essential constituent of the CBOs in all the 1709 villages spread over 18 districts whichhave come to be under the banner of Lok Shakti Sangathan. As on date the Lok ShaktiSangathan (LSS) has a collectively generated internal resource pool of approximately Rs

13780150/- (Rupees One Crore thirty seven lakhs eighty thousand one hundred and

fifty only). It has not only reduced the dependence of its target group members on thelocal money lenders but also enabled them to sustain many a struggle for their rights. The

contribution of gram kosh has been in no small measure in enabling the LSS members to

successfully struggle for laying claim to 525 acres and 18 kattha of arable and homestead

land and 127 acres and 12 kattha of pond area. Thanks to Gram Kosh the struggle forlaying claim to another 1055 acres and 14 kattha of land and 49 acres and 12 kattha of

pond area continues.

Documents

Grass Roots & Gramkosh (Grain Bank Concept)